Start with the premise that rather than entering this world randomly, I chose my parents. This is precisely what my patriarch grandfather told me. Why in the world did I choose poor parents who lived in desolate Lund, Idaho, in the Great Depression? The images and text in Before Birth are a meditation on my choice. Was it unfortunate? Perhaps not as I have come to the realization that in choosing my parents, I simultaneously chose an illustrious array of forbears.